Bicing bike-share staff begin indefinite strike 

Staff at Bicing, Barcelona's publicly-owned bike-share system, began an indefinite strike at 7 am on Tuesday morning. 

Last-minute negotiations facilitated by the Department of Labor failed to yield an agreement, with the CGT and CCOO unions proceeding with strike action over their demand for a salary increase in line with the cost of living. Bicing has a 155-strong workforce.

"We advise Bicing users to use alternative means of transport on strike days as the bicycles available may be insufficient and there could be a high number of unrepaired vehicles," the CGT warned.

For their part, Bicing said the "service will continue to be available to users, but with operations affected," for the duration of the strike.

They recommend users "consult the availability of bicycles and parking slots well in advance through the SMOU app."

Unions are also demanding better pay for long-term staff, and asking for working weekends and holidays, as well as the introduction of bonuses.  

CGT says it is asking for a "decent" agreement and has criticized Barcelona City Council – the owners of Bicing – for its "lack of dialogue."  

Protests 

Bicing workers gathered at 10:30 am on Tuesday in Plaça Sant Jaume, outside City Hall, for a noisy protest.  

"The strike has a massive participation rate of close to 90%," said Julio Moreno, Bicing Council President, adding that only among office staff were there fewer employees taking part. 

"We anticipate that by stopping this service lots of bikes will build up in certain areas, and in other areas users will find there won't be any bikes to pick up," he said. 

On Wednesday, they will protest outside the offices of the public company responsible for running the service, B:SM, and on Thursday they will return to Plaça Sant Jaume.  

CGT is critical of Bicing's "lack of resources," saying more vehicles and staff are needed, and that the number of bicycles should be increased above the current fleet of 7,000.  

Broken bikes "should be repaired and not parked at the stations," a statement said, arguing that the replenishment service should be improved. 

Fleet expansion 

On Saturday, Bicing announced an expansion of the bicycle fleet, with 1,000 more electric bicycles and 74 new stations in the network, at a cost of €2.8 million. 

Once expanded, the service will have 8,000 bicycles (5,000 electric) and 593 stations. 

Barcelona City Council indicates that by the end of 2023, the scheme will have had 147,000 subscribers and 18 million uses throughout the year. 

The new stations will be located in various parts of the city where demand is greatest, including Eixample and Sant Martí. They will be installed gradually throughout the course of 2024, beginning with eight locations in Montjuïc. 

According to the city council, no other city in Europe has a higher density of shared bike stations per square kilometer than Barcelona.